Plant Bulbs in the Fall for Spring Flowers

• When the bulbs arrive. Bulbs should be planted as soon as the ground is cool. In most parts of the country, this would be around the time of the first frosts, when evening temperatures average between 40° to 50° F. But you must plant at least six weeks before the ground freezes. You can store bulbs for a month or longer, if you keep them in a cool dry place. When in doubt, however, the bulbs belong in the ground. They won’t last till next season.

• Read the label. Whether the bulbs come in the mail, or from the local garden center, they usually come with instructions. Read them. And keep the label together with the bulbs until planting. Without the label, you can’t tell the red tulips from the white ones just by looking at the bulbs.

• Where to plant. You can plant bulbs just about anywhere in your garden — so long as the soil drains well. The Dutch say, "bulbs don’t like wet feet." So, avoid areas where water collects, such as the bottom of hills. Bulbs also like sun. But the spring garden is very sunny — the leaves aren’t on the trees yet. Get creative!

• Prepare the planting bed by digging the soil so it’s loose and workable. If it’s not an established garden bed, chances are the soil could use the addition of some organic matter such as compost or peat moss. These are available at most local garden retailers.

• Plant the pointy end up. That’s about all you need to know. It’s easy to spot the pointy end of a tulip. Tougher with a crocus. But in most cases, even if you don’t get it right, the bulb flower will still find its way topside.

• Plant big bulbs about 8-inches deep and small bulbs about 5-inches.

• No fertilizer is necessary for the first year’s bloom. Bulbs are natural storehouses of food. They don’t need anything to flower the first year. For bulbs that are intended to naturalize or perennialize (return for several years) or for bulbs that are coming into their second year, spread an organic fertilizer such as compost or well-rotted cow manure, or a slow release bulb food on top of the soil.

• If you do fertilize, never mix fertilizer in the planting hole. It can burn the roots. Also don’t follow the old adage of adding bone meal. Modern bone meal adds little nutritional value. It can also encourage pests and even dogs to dig up your bulbs looking for bones!

• Plant bulbs in clusters. Don’t plant one bulb alone, or make a long thin line along the walk. Clusters give a concentration of color for greatest impact. Even if you don’t have enough bulbs for a big bed, small clusters can make a super spring show.

• Plant low bulbs in front of high. This is a good general rule for bulbs that bloom at the same time. The label will give you the height of the plant and it’s approximate flowering time. Of course there are times to break this rule. For example if the low growing bulbs bloom early and the tall bulbs bloom late, plant the tall in front. Their display will camouflage the dying foliage of the smaller bulbs!

• Try a double-decker effect. You can plant small bulbs in a layer right on top of large bulbs. If you plant bulbs that flower in the same period you can create an interesting double-decker effect (picture bright pink tulips blooming above cobalt blue muscari). Or you can stagger the bloom time by planting mid- and late-season bloomers together, creating a spring display that blooms in succession, for a whole season of color!

In the end, what you do with spring bulbs is limited only by your imagination. A few hours one brisk autumn afternoon can yield months of colorful excitement in your yard or garden next spring.

Teach a Child - Bulbs Yield Fabulous Flowers

Perhaps no other garden activity is so identified with fall as the planting of spring-flowering bulbs. Fall bulb planting reaches the level of ritual with many serious gardeners. But for all their majesty, tulips, daffodils and other flower bulbs are among the easiest plants for beginners, including children, to grow successfully.

Unlike seeds, bulbs are not dormant. They are already living plants and are practically guaranteed to grow if you put them in the ground in the fall. Slice open a hyacinth, for example, and your child can see the "baby flower" in the middle, just waiting to burst forth in the spring.

Bulbs are planted in two ways: laid out in quantity in large trenches, or placed individually or in small groups in small holes.

Trench plantings offer an ideal way to achieve a formal look, or offer an easy way to lay out patterns. You could, for example, make a crazy quilt pattern of colors or write your children's names in different colored crocuses or tulips.

"Naturalizing" is an easy technique that uses the small hole approach. As a design style, naturalized bulbs are meant to look as if nature planted them. Naturalizing is also a term for planting those types of bulbs that will come back year after year.

Children can have a lot of fun with naturalizing, because the best way to achieve that "natural" look is to grab handfuls of bulbs, toss them out on the target area and plant them where they fall.

Bulbs can actually be planted right on the lawn and will grow through the grass. Everyone would know where the "Smith Family" lived if it were spelled out on the lawn in yellow crocuses!  Think of the fun you can have planting bulbs with your children this fall and then looking forward to seeing them blooming in the spring.  Maybe we'll have to go find an area where we can plant bulbs to welcome visitors to our town/city. 

You might want to mark where you planted your bulbs using little plastic markers or Popsicle sticks by each bulb grouping.  Use indelible ink to mark what you planted .  Push the marker well into the ground so it doesn't fall over.  Marking the bulbs will help you remember where you planted them so you don't accidently slice through a favorite bulb when digging in the area for some other plant.  Keep it simple.   Bulbs go well with other garden plants planted around them once they have bloomed in the spring. 

It's important to remove only the spent flowers of bulbs and let the foliage die back.  Spent flowers go to seed, which takes energy away from the bulb.  Foliage dieback is a process that provides food for the bulb underneath, and therefore next year's flowers.  Remove leaves only after they have turned brown.